Three months to find Globe

Press, 18 March 1989, Page 10

Three months to find Globe

NZPA-AAP London Archaeologists will be given three months to look for the remains of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in Southwark, London. Following the discovery of another Elizabethan playhouse at a site nearby, experts now think the chances of finding some of the Globe’s foundations are quite high. Shakespeare’s four great tragedies and at least 12 further plays were first staged at the Globe. Historians say the playwright owned 10 per cent of the theatre and performed there himself. Negotiations between Museum of London archaeologists and the site owners, Hanson Properties — an arm of the British industrial conglomerate Hanson — are

nearly complete. Hanson told the "Financial Times” the museum would be given three months in which to make a trial dig for tangible evidence of the Globe, which has a sketchy past. Historians agree the Globe, built in 1599 and rebuilt after a fire in 1613, stood just to the east of what is now the southern approach to Southwark Bridge and the new headquarters of the “Financial Times.”

A brewery stood on the area for 200 years but that was demolished a few years ago to make way for a concrete carpark.

Part of that will be ripped up for the archaeologists’ benefit A spokesman for Hanson said: “The spotlight of the world is on the area now.”